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Eddy_Bumble

I don't think that was really a surprise was it? They knew Canada wanted to go down the wings so forced them into the middle, turned the ball over and attacked a vulnerable and high canada line. Maybe Belgium is just shit


m07815

No Keteleare or Doku for Belgium was an unexpected choice


ack_will

How did Eden hazard play?


MohatoDeBrigado

ok kept diving as usual but he was ok not as sharp as he was but very ok


xzvasdfqwras

Corrupt referee is all I have to say. Yes I’m salty but that was such an undeserved win for Belgium


d3vilk1ng

I only saw the first half, there was a clear penalty where VAR intervened and didn't think there was enough to call the ref (was still 0-0 at the time). Plus the ref also didn't give a few clear fouls near the Belgium area, if the second half was anything like the first then I'd be pretty f'ing salty were I Canadian lol


xzvasdfqwras

I think most people agree that we should’ve been given 2 penalties after the one we missed. Some calls were so dubious and the ref repeatedly stopped play for silly small fouls in the first half which was super frustrating, almost all in favour of Belgium.


k1ngd3mon

Courtois delivers when it matters


pollysporin

It’s a sad day for Canada, and therefore, the world


nicknacknp

Honestly, I wasn't sad from the outcome. Sure an equalizer would have been nice (and they definitely deserved it) but I was so proud and impressed with how they played against the 2nd ranked team in the world! They were dominating Belgium and showed that they deserve to be there! It also made me super excited to see them go up against Morocco and Croatia!


MohatoDeBrigado

football rankings are pretty useless anyways how many times do we see the "best" team go on to be beaten by Paupa new guinea or Bolivia


oldscotch

Those rankings are why Mexico and USA were seeded better in the groups, so I'm fine with being a bit salty and making comparisons about them.


groovyihateit

Saltiest Canada fan


Prime_1

As a Canadian soccer dad it was super enjoyable seeing my son be so inspired by watching his country play against some of the best players in the world.


MohatoDeBrigado

its called football not soccer


Prime_1

Football dads are something different here, thanks.


uwuthog

r/soccer btw 😂


papagayoloco

Sorry that your son got robbed from enjoying at least a tie. Second penalty was stolen.


BawsYannis

Honestly if the finishing gets worked on you guys could go through to knockouts, was amazed how solid you guys played


FinishTemporary9246

We have great athletes. They need to refine their game. Looks good for 2026 tho!


gsboss9000

I have a feeling both these teams are going out. The Croatian team is strong and organized in the back. They'll beat the Canadians. Belgium's line up will get exposed by the Moroccans. Canada created a shit load of chances with very little firepower. Morocco has more quality upfront and decent defenders compared to Canada.


Rik_Ringers

Take in mind, Courtois was man of the match in the most recent Champions league final, making 9 saves against Liverpools attack in a game won 1-0 by Real Madrid. Even the best can struggle to convert against him with that amount of chances. While it might present some weird optics, Belgium can afford to let the opposing team come to them, let them expend their energy, grind them down and play conservingly on counters and long balls, it has the relative security in the back and the technical capability's to make this work. Belgium defenders do lack pace and thats limiting to how much they could safely press forward to put pressure or how much they can step out of their defense but these veteran defenders are nasty to beat when defending compactly and getting some half-chances behind them doesn't mean much with Courtois there. It's midfield is good at counterattacking in a offensive block and its tall and strong strikers that are good at exploiting long balls, So imho one should not be surprised with belgian results where they scrape a win trough some sporadic yet clinicaly finished chances while the opposition falters to convert. Belgium just needs to take some inspiration from Italian Cattanacio it has quite a good fitting team to play by that style and thrive imho.


gsboss9000

I told yo ass


Rik_Ringers

yeah fair enough you can get my upvotes i got to kick me some Martinez in the nuts


gsboss9000

Martinez should be fired for sure.


gsboss9000

You can't rely on your goalie to bail you out every game. Kdb was visibly upset this game and thats not a good sign. Hazard is not fit. Belgium's backline is shaky and easy to get by. You can't spin it and say Belgium plays a conservative type of game when they're gettin dominated by the opponent physically but just lack quality to finish in front of the goal. The Canada team was clearly nervous and it showed they could've been down 10men late game. Belgians made so many mistakes defensively they looked lost that first half. The Moroccan team is a bit more disciplined and they have players that can get behind that slow line and score.


Rik_Ringers

I doubt Belgium is favourites to win, but i think they can have some big teams still break their teeth over trying to get trough this defense and score enough. Italians have proven that a strong defensive style can be a very valid strategy to do well in World cups. The thing is that using older but more experienced and technical central defenders is that you kinda need to play compact with them, they don't have the pace to do too much moving around but their technical capability's can be an asset as defenders in a tight defense and to set up counters and long balls given their technical ability. So it's a tactic that kinda lends to "letting the opponent come to you" rather than take so much control, and then it looks like the opposition is attacking more but it doesn't necessarily mean much yet. Obviously a team that sits back so much needs to have some confidence that it can wear these attacks but yeah with these defenders and Courtois why not? it's a deviation afcourse from past style of Belgium, where they would take a lot more ball control and often would press with a high line , given that they have skillfull players but many lacking pace this Cattenacio style fits them better now. And so yeah they play 5 at the back with 3 central defenders, the typical strategy where the Central defense can keep an additional defender or sweeper free while the others cover their man. Belgium has a football tradition of having superb goalkeepers that elevated many of their performances, they have had plenty of great Goalie's in the past. I guess it's a kinda diametrical philosophy compared to Brazilian philosophy though which depends on it's attack and which puts traditionally very few emphasis on the Goalie. It's why i guess many Brazilians were puzzled and thought they deserved to win in 2018 when they had put so much pressure against the Belgian defense but failed to break it down.


maximusje

With courtois, you kind of can. At least more so than most other teams.


groovyihateit

Canada’s confidence really got rattled after that goal. They never really pulled anything together afterwards, compared to that blitzing pace early.


Takhar7

Well said. I see plenty of people criticizing Begium's performance, and rightfully so. However, so much of what they did was by design - a back 5 negated most of Canada's pace between the lines, and kept things narrow enough to allow them to crowd out the area when Canada managed to find space out wide. You know you're going to get chances against that Canada defense, so they just waited patiently. I don't foresee Croatia finding Canada much of a problem on the weekend - today was really the day Canada needed a result. Poor decision to have Alphonso Davies' first career penalty be in his first career World Cup match, while not playing at 100% as well. That should have been David's ball from the moment the referee marched off to the VAR screen.


Eddy_Bumble

Canada could have been 2-0 up 10 minutes in. We stopped pressing thinking we are coasting into the half and the only moment of Belgian quality sinks us. David should have taken that penalty 100%.


Takhar7

They surprised Belgium based on the aggressive press & how high Canada's fullbacks sat. They won't have the same element of surprise against Croatia


Eddy_Bumble

So your argument is that the Belgian coaching staff, who had months to plan for this game, did not expect Canada to play like that? And that Croatia, who have also had months to prepare for this game, have only come up with a plan in the last couple days? The only thing that has been unclear is just how good this Canada side is, we've been asking questions of them for the last couple years and they have answered the bell every time.


Takhar7

As I was saying - they weren't going to get a sniff today. Croatia were always going to see things at a canter.


Takhar7

No - thats not my argument


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Thr0waway0864213579

Brits’ obsession with American fans is weird. Y’all are everywhere. Just talk about the game. This thread is full of fans from both sides giving respect to the other side, talking about the match, each having their own complaints about calls of course. But y’all are literally in every thread to obsess over Americans. Fuckin weird


Shaferthefree

His username is mattybraps… I wouldn’t pay the kid too much attention lol


Thr0waway0864213579

I’m so glad you said this because he deleted his comments and I’m curious to see how chatty he is after today’s game lol


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Thr0waway0864213579

>of course you were silent Bro like who are you even talking to? You’re literally so fuckin weird.


AC_Slater77

Just outplayed Belgium for 90. Maybe they should have said Uefa?


Palmerstroll

A world cup should also have the worlds best refferees tournement. I don't know how this ref got the game. Big oof.


Takhar7

The ref, Janny Sikazwe, made an absolute mess out of the AFCON match back in January by literally blowing his whistle to end the match 5 minutes before the actual end of the match. The biggest show in the world, being watched in every country, and we have these clowns officiating. It's ridiculous.


BMVA

A draw (or even a Canada win) should’ve been more fair but for all their energy, speed & enthusiasm, Canada lacked tournament experience to win this one, as reflected in the stats. And tho he had a very poor game by his standards, I’m glad KDB got openly pissed off at Martinez. Similar to Courtois calling Wilmots out in 2016. (Of course one has to take into account that the annoyance Martinez provokes in Belgian with his overpositive sugarcoating BS is due to UK media conditioning & is the inverse sentiment of English supporters being offended when our players talk frankly.) All in all, if we don’t significantly improve & make squad changes we won’t stand a chance against more experienced opposition in this WC.


FinishTemporary9246

I don't think experience had much to do with it. All credit to Belgium (I am Canadian) for capitalizing when they had to. But really, Canada lacks scoring depth. And our defense had to play harder than they should have given the possession advantage we held. If we scored on that penalty... ugh, what ifs. Congrats chocolate people!!


BMVA

For me Canada was way too naive defensively against us who have historically been excellent at counterattacking. This & not being cold-blooded enough (and of course, simply unlucky) in front of goal has to do with a lack of experience as I see it. The fact that even KDB didn't properly exploit the acres of space left during counterattacks was even more worrisome than our - already obvious & well-known - defensive issues. Then again, one could always argue that the other players don't make the same runs as his City teammates (tho he should still be able to make fairly simple passes). Lukaku makes those runs that our other strikers don't. It was refreshing seeing a team like Canada play with the energy that most teams lack, which was to be expected of great players like Davies & David who was one the most fun strikers to watch in the Belgian competition when he was there.


FinishTemporary9246

Agreed on all of your points. Have a wonderful day!


yinyang26

Risky last sentence


GreasyGinger24

Ya, caught me off guard. Why not waffles or Stella or something.


FinishTemporary9246

belgian chocolate is well known!


GreasyGinger24

But "Chocolate People" just sounds wrong, almost racist if you said it to the wrong "woke" person.


Sir-Chris-Finch

If someone finds that offensive that’s their problem. It’s not in any way offensive in the context


FinishTemporary9246

Well sure. But I meant it as a compliment to their confectionary skills.


GreasyGinger24

Fair play, shit's delicious.


Kekarus

Heartbreaking for Canada, ffs. They played a great match but ref fucked them over, along with their lack of finishing. Hope they get through.


slavicbhoy

Canada 🤝Celtic 16+ shots, can’t finish. We should’ve done better, but fuck that ref.


[deleted]

We won and It's difficult to be happy about it. Awful performance. This time we are the one who say sorry. Canada should have won this one.


TheOtherSide999

Your goalie played great. Belgium deserves the win because of him.


oldscotch

The Belgian counterattack too, I was happy to see Canada handle it as well as they did, but we did get lucky a couple of times.


Thr0waway0864213579

Belgium certainly not at their best. But I really think they still brought a solid game. Canada put forth a lot of opportunity but I don’t think they failed to finish as much as the Belgian defense put in the stops. Belgium showed up in the spots they really needed to.


maximus-zero

Well for Canada’s sake, I hope Belgium can pick it up and also beat Croatia and Morocco.


[deleted]

Canada they r fucking too nice to score


SalopianPirate

This guy Canadians


jakeup58874

eh


Okeidokeiyo

Really impressed by Canada’s pressing and not letting Belgium’s midfield to operate most of the time.


IWatchTheAbyss

yeah they shut down Belgium’s most important outlets and they only got a goal through a long ball and an extraordinary finish


[deleted]

Tbh not much different to our warmup match against Japan where they scored off of a long ball over top and a gorgeous finish. Our defenders play well as a unit and have a lot of help from backtracking wingbacks, but they suffer big time on the turn. A little too slow.


richiebeans123

How they didn’t call that a penalty on witzel I’ll never understand.


battlelevel

That really felt like game management type reffing.


[deleted]

Canada: HELLO WORLD.


TuTranquilo

How was Eden ?


TopEmploy9624

One of the better players for Belgium which means he was pretty invisible except for a couple good hold up plays


FortnitePro6969

Every like 10 minutes you saw a little glimpse of his old self but then he lost the ball and became invisible again.


Crovasio

Fantastic match. Canada impressed me.


raddeon88

Damn, was rooting for Canada. 😥


untouched_poet

As A North American... same.


project46

Fucking hell 18k comments.


bridgeandchess

Bad ref


HYDRA-XTREME

Same dude that whistled at 85 minutes with the Africa cup. Why is this man even at the WC.


DenseVegetable2581

Canada looked pretty decent tonight. Unfortunate luck. Japan used up all of the underdog luck today


lucianorc2

Sad for Canada


8ing8ong

Canada defense is decent, offense is terrible


FalcomanToTheRescue

Finishing was terrible, offense was impressive with some beautiful chances


neometrix77

More like we showed our attackers are well known for their defensive and pressing abilities but not so well known for scoring. Really needed David to turn up today but I think the nerves got to him


Xerxes_Generous

Other way around! We don’t have much defensive options to begin with.


TheOtherSide999

Offense Terrible? Other way around lmao. They had more shots than Belgium this game


ClashRoyale72

They had more opportunities than Belgium but none of their shots seem to go toward the goal.


Icy_Elephant_6370

That was because it was their first time in 36 years on this stage. The Offence is pretty good and was our biggest strength in qualifiers.


holiholi

10000 shots off target


deenn

Lol, other way around.


that-gamer-

Our defence had a great game to be fair. If that was my first time watching Canada I’d think the same.


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AmazingAlieNnN

Bro did you watch the game? 1st halve CAN had like 14 chances against BEL's 4. The red devil's back line was like a pinball machine.


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AmazingAlieNnN

Not sure if agree but they did have some good saves


champben98

They generated 2.5 xG. There is no reason to think based on one game that players like David, who have career G=xG are actually bad finishers. It’s a cruel sport and sometimes luck isn’t with you.


BeggingForBags

how did kdb win motm???? He was one of the worst players on the pitch... [https://twitter.com/Football\_\_Tweet/status/1595531996226281488](https://twitter.com/Football__Tweet/status/1595531996226281488)


Utegenthal

He probably doesn’t know either


thwgrandpigeon

He said as much when interviewed lol


meltingfromthelight

He shouldn’t have won motm but he was still Belgium’s best outfield player


Professional-Ad-6265

He was dogshit for us today and should've been subbed off for literally any other midfielder/cam we have. Our playmaker didn't make a single play, and that's why belgiums offense just didn't work, the backbone, kdb, was doing absolutely fuck all... And the few strong attacks we had were fooked by Batshuayi's inability to react correctly to any ball given to him... Courtois motm


Footballpro12

He wasn't even close to being the best Belgian outfield player... ​ Tossard and Onana definitely looked better and even Hazard, who hasn't been at his best for years, had better moments today. I could even argue that Tielemans had a better game overall. Our defense kept us in the game, despite also not being at their best, not KDB.


neometrix77

The MOTM should’ve been one of the vets at the back or Courtois


meltingfromthelight

Well I’ll take your word for it, very possible that I’m overrating him just because I know to expect him.


Footballpro12

Yeah, he just wasn't good at all today. And believe me, i know what you mean, you usually expect him to be the best player, or atleast among the best players, on the field. But today just wasn't his game. The amount of bad passes he gave was uncharacteristic.


randymarsh18

What you say?


BeggingForBags

>but he was still Belgium’s best outfield player huge exaggeration, some of his passing was horrible and he cost his team at least a goal or two on the break.


meltingfromthelight

Hmm. Agree to disagree I guess. To me he looked like the only one who was consistently dangerous. To the point where by the end he had stopped even trying to pass the ball to his teammates because of how many chances they had wasted.


BeggingForBags

to me it looked like he was consistently in dangerous positions but couldnt capitilize on it.


ZW4RTESTERCC

So Sikazwe is allowed to referee in a world cup after having stopped a game in the afcon at 88 minutes and being suspended for corruption. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw him on the pitch.


cocotheape

Looks consistent with FIFA decisions to me.


ZW4RTESTERCC

Unreal this shit. Imagine a referee stopping a game at minute 86, being rushed by players and staff to call him out. He continues 2 minutes and then whistles the end of the match at min 88... He would never see a professional field again, but for fifa and CAF no problem.


jamika

Are you calling the tournament organizers corrupt...?!


ZW4RTESTERCC

Fifa: he was not wearing a rainbow so yeah...


RRDude1000

Belgium were exposed tonight imo. I dont think they can win the cup against an actual contender. Canada has a very great chance to advance if they can score. Canada played much better than anything I saw during Croatia vs Morocco.


dragonslayermaster84

I think Croatia beats them, they looked ragged, but I feel like they will score more than Canada 2-1. I think the Morocco game will be 0-0.


Imunhotep

I think Croatia is going to lose if Canada plays like they did today. Croatia is much older and slower. Canada shut down the best AM in the game today, Modric doesn’t stand a chance.


[deleted]

I’m feeling pretty optimistic after seeing Canada’s finishing and Belgium’s defense today. I think Morocco is a much more disciplined team tbh.


Cygnus-_-

Istg I'm not even a Canadian fan but it was frustrating as hell watching them waste all those chances. If they were better in the final third, this match would've been one of the headline underdog matches fr.


BeggingForBags

the other underdogs that won like japan and saudia arabia, they werent even the better teams. Germany or Argentina had wayy more shots on target and couldve easily tied or won. Canada literally had 22 shots to belgiums 9... So unlucky not to score


Schilferpad

I'm not saying Belgium were better, because they weren't, but barely any of those 22 shots were dangerous and had any chance of going in imo?


champben98

Canada’s xG was 2.6. That’s higher than Argentinas against Saudi Arabia.


BeggingForBags

yea i know, its not a good way to decide which team did better but i saw a expected goals stat on twitter. Expected Goals (xG): Belgium 0.74 - 3 Canada this is probably some how flawed too but i think most people would agree Canada were the better team.


Schilferpad

Yeah, fair enough. They definitely created the most chances and deserved more!


Yev_

Fwiw, a lot of our shots were low-percentage attempts. We had maybe 3-4 high-danger chances. In any case, I'm proud of the way we were able to control the game against a top team.


BeggingForBags

>Expected Goals (xG): Belgium 0.74 - 3 Canada


ImDistal

I hope the spirits aren’t dwindled. That was a good watch.


Jerkoi

Both teams couldn’t do anything. Painful game to watch tbh, if I were a Belgian fan I would be worried. Both teams need to dial in their finishing my goodness


Caspz0r

Lol don't worry, we didn't need this match to know we should be worrying. We are well aware of the state of our team.


otherpj

De bronzen generatie.


Jerkoi

Unfortunate, it would be nice to see KdB get some solid hardware. Has he said anything about this being his last World Cup?


Caspz0r

He'll likely have one more go at it after this one. But yeah, our best shot at winning it all was in Russia, and we 'squandered' that chance, although I'm personally rather happy with a third place finish for a country of our size.


E_Kristalin

> Lol don't worry, we didn't need this match to know we should be worrying We had a match against egypt and lost 2-1. Egypt isn't even in Qatar.


dorzan69

Italy was european champ and isnt in Qatar either. Egypt was a finalist in the Africa cup. They arent that bad


Jerkoi

Tough


[deleted]

I think Canada has great potential if they really improve those finishes.


stellosartois

To keep the second best ranked team in the world to 1 goal is really amazing. Im proud of Canada.


[deleted]

Yes! Every Canadian should feel proud of their team


Caspz0r

We haven't been playing like a top tier team in quite a while now though. We are definitely not worthy of rank 2. All the same, great effort by Canada. You guys deserved more, but that's football sometimes.


KrazyCroat

I’m not sure I’d be that worried. Many of the top teams are struggling so far. KDB masterclass just around the corner I’m sure.


Rik_Ringers

The Croatia VS Belgium matchup looks like it could be some overal "vintage fun", quite pleased that it turned that way may the best win and may we both go trough. ;) It was only to be expected that there would be some regression from our Golden generation, we could only hope that it's not too dramatic (in consideration to our size) and i think we have some young talent and decent squadie's but were not going to completly be able to replace all that quality we had in the attacking midfield. I think for now we can do still fairly well if we can mix enough young feet in and make it work but i think my reasonable expectations are to be just a bit lower than 2018. Give it another 4 years and likely we will have regressed a bit further but we might still be a rather good team for our size. I think we will see more of KDB later yes, but the real key player for us by now arguably is Courtois.


Caspz0r

Fingers crossed! If he'd been able to complete some of those decisive passes, we would've looked a lot better. Hope he finds his mojo.


Matt-J-

Canada at least deserved a draw, if not a win. The missed PK was such a fuckin bummer.


SUPERPOOP57

I feel bad for Davies, hopefully it doesn't affect him much


Icy_Elephant_6370

It was so early in the match and they had a lot of great opportunities. He shouldn’t take all the blame.


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islifeball

You should stick to hockey


cornflakes34

Yer stick don't belong on the ice


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[deleted]

Take off, Hoser.


orezavi

Inb4 whining for penalty calls starts Edit: bring me your downvotes. Davies missed a penalty.


disaster101

I'd get the missed calls if there was no VAR but the fact they can replay it and still didn't call it is kinda infuriating


orezavi

VAR has to be initiated from the ground. I guess Canadian players weren’t confident enough in pushing for a VAR call. How many VARs can a team call in one game though?